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By Dino Oberto
Photo Big Diamond Speedway
(Minersville, PA 4-17-26) Friday night’s racing action at Big Diamond Speedway, which was sponsored by Frank DiMarco Autobody and Auto Repair of New Philadelphia, saw all six features that where run produce plenty of side-by-side racing and passing thanks to a well-prepared track surface.
In the BQ Concrete 358 Modifieds Rick Laubach of Quakertown scored his 28th career win. The USS Achey Inc., 602 Crate Sportsman ran a pair of features that included the holdover from April 10 and coming home victorious was Zach Steffey of Sinking Springs and Nate Brinker from Macungie. Alex Schoffstall of Llewelyn drove to his second win in three races with the Red White and Blue Autos Inc., Roadrunners and Kevin Fitzpatrick from Branch Dale swept the twin Big Creek Rookie 602 Crate Sportsman mains.
Friday night highlighted Laubach’s resilience as a veteran driver, particularly after two challenging initial events that did not yield positive results, typical of what has come to be expected of the high-standard performance that has defined his career.
“It hasn’t been the best for us the first couple races and finally tonight Jake (Smulley) gave us a good track, you could run high and that’s all you want to ask for,” said Laubach.
“This is one of the best facilities around and tonight there was two grooves, and you could run high and you could run low and that was good racing as far as I’m concerned.”
The initial outset start of the race was jumbled as the field was preparing to complete the first lap and in the process defending champion Louden Reimert was taken out after hitting the wall.
When things did get going pole sitter Cody Manmiller dashed out ahead of Mike Burrows, Alan Rudalavage, Laubach and Kevin Olenick.
Laubach wasn’t wasting time as he blasted to second by lap three. Also on the move was Tim Buckwalter who tagged along with Laubach for third.
From there Manmiller was keeping his guard up as best he could against Laubach who was keeping him close in his sights. His hard-fought effort would last until the start of lap seven as Laubach went to his outside and took control from there. Following a lap 10 caution, Buckwalter was able to move up to second.
Although Buckwalter was fast just as he has been each race thus far, Laubach maintained his lead, smoothly passing slower traffic without any setbacks and went on to score his first victory of 2026.
“I knew he (Buckwalter) has a good motor and when I saw him get into second I just had to beat him into the corners and just try to race and that’s real racing right there and you have to have a track to do it and he (Smulley) gave it to us,” said Laubach.
“I’ll be honest I didn’t do a lot to this car, and I really didn’t even scale it. I put it on the ground this afternoon and said it looks good and I told my wife I’m going to mow the grass.”
Not to be overshadowed by the two front runners, third place finisher Logan Watt also turned in a remarkable drive. Watt pitted following the lap one incident for a flat tire but once returning he continued to pass cars at will en route to his best run to date. Likewise, Brandon Edgar put his car through the paces in taking a solid fourth while Mike Lisowski rounded out the top five.
In the make-up 602 Crate Sportsman feature Steve Hughes took the reins at the front and was having a time dueling with Jimmy Leiby. Several restarts over the first seven laps had been called back
due to the front pair jumping too soon and officials felt it was then necessary to set both drivers back one row.
That would put Steffey into the lead and it was clear he was not about to give it up. His car was very quick and although Nate Brinker had hustled up to second and was within reach, Steffey never wavered and held on for his first career win at Big Diamond.
The nightcap saw Ryan Conrad jump to the early lead with Leiby once again the runner-up pursuer. Leiby would then make good on a lap sox restart to take over the top spot. Brinker slipped into second and when he did he began to put plenty of pressure on the leader.
Brinker’s persistence paid off following a lap 11 restart in which he used the outside lane to get by Leiby and move to the lead and there would be no looking back from there.
As a result of his second place tallies in both features Brinker was the recipient of a free American Racer tire for having the best overall finish.
Second place finisher Matt Martino had a very good run and pushed hard to try and catch Brinker and then there was that of Ryan Graver who’s third place score came while blasting the outside line and had time run out before he could go any further.
Alex Schoffstall overtook Mike Reichert after halfway through and easily secured his second win of the season and 39th overall in the Roadrunners feature.
Reichert as well as early leader Jim Kost stayed second and third to the finish respectively.
The ruling in the Rookie 602 Crate Sportsman division is win three times and you must move up to the regular Crate class and for Kevin Fitzpatrick it was easy as 1-2-3, three straight races and three straight wins.
The first feature was the make-up from the previous week, and Fitzpatrick made a daring last lap pass over race-long leader Mason Harakel. The in the regularly scheduled main he needed only three laps to grab the lead from Josh Metzger and from there on it was smooth sailing.
358 Modified finish (25 laps): 1. Rick Laubach, 2. Tim Buckwalter, 3. Logan Watt, 4. Brandon Edgar, 5. Mike Lisowki, 6. Kevin Beach Jr., 7. Cody Manmiller, 8. Jax Yohn, 9. Kevin Olenick, 10. Mike Burrows, 11. Alex Tonkin, 12. Heath Metzger, 13. Wayne Witmer, 14. Jim Bobbitt, 15. Kenny Hildebrant, 16. Corey Renninger, 17. Alan Rudalavage, 18. WB James, 19. Hunter Metzger, 20. Cliff Quinn, 21. Louden Reimert DNS: Duane Howard
Make-up 602 Crate Modified finish from 4/10 (20 laps): 1. Zach Steffey, 2. Nate Brinker, 3. Steve Hughes, 4. Trevor Bixler, 5. Mikey Schneck Jr., 6. Ryan Graver, 7. Colin Cox, 8. Logan Starr, 9. Matt Martino, 10. Mike Stofflet, 11. Dakota Kohler, 12. Brennan Chapman, 13. Kevin Smith, 14. McKenzi Smith, 15. Reice Widger, 16. Shannon Slaughter, 17. Tajae Adams. 18. Jimmy Leibey, 19. Aaron Weaver, 20. Mark Behm, 21. Ralph Melee, 22. Dylan Cappel, 23. Nick Hamm, 24. Kevin Brady
DNQ: Ed Mrochko, Dennis Graber, Michael Samony, Ryan Conrad, Teague Miller
Regular 602 Crate Modified finish (20 laps): 1. Brinker, 2. Martino, 3. Graver, 4. Schneck Jr., 5. Leiby. 6. Steffey, 7. Kohler, 8. Stofflet, 9. Chapman, 10. Widger, 11. Slaughter, 12. Hamm, 13. Mrochko, 14. Adams, 15. Conrad, 16. Starr, 17. Brady, 18. Melee, 19. Hughes, 20. Cappel, 21. Cox, 22. M. Smith, 23. Mark Behm DNS: Trevor Bixlor
Roadrunner finish (20 laps): 1. Alex Schoffstall, 2. Mike Reichert, 3. Jim Kost, 4. Joe Bassininsky, 5. Joey Brennan, 6. Seth Reichert, 7. Andrew Buchinski, 8. CJ Ferguson, 9. Jonathan Trumbo, 10. Chuck Fayash, 11. Eric Buchinski, 12. Terry Kramer, 13. Brian Johnson, 14. Jarod Bassinisky
Make-up Rookie 602 Crate Modified finish from 4/10 (15 laps): 1. Kevin Fitzpatrick, 2. Mason Harakel, 3. Devin Whitmoyer, 4 Payton Renninger, 5. Josh Metzger, 6. Zach Moyer, 7. Lucas Weil
Regular Rookie 602 Crate Modified finish (15 laps): 1. Fitzpatrick, 2. Metzger, 3. Whitmoyer, 4. Renninger, 5. Moyer, 6. Harakel, 7. Weil, 8. Marcello Caminiti
